Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/48160
approached, but we don't want to risk the quality control issues," says Quinn. But incoming retail customers are often the types who head to specialty shops for other food products such as cheeses, wines, meats or baked goods. "We notice that customers seem to enjoy talking to us and picking out their teas," says Katherine. "It makes it a little more special." The couple shops the same way: "Steve's Cheese Bar, Little T bakery—so many small local shops are totally worth the trip," says Quinn. Foxfire Teas are served at a growing list of respected Portland coffeehouses, restaurants and food carts, as well as offices and retail spaces. "When we see a great new café or restaurant open up, we get excited about possibly working with them," says Quinn. "But mostly we prefer referrals at this point. We've been lucky … in the last few years. Everyone changes suppliers for their own reasons, but we haven't lost many accounts." Foxfire services 70 or so wholesale customers with free delivery (same day if possible) and no minimum orders. "Having had our tea bar and foodservice business, we understand they're juggling a lot," says Katherine. "And we just want people to have our tea." With just the two of them "on staff," they also get to see their customers in their own environments when they make a delivery. "We love food—and coffee too. We feel privileged to have our teas sold in these places," says Quinn. 7 n May, Foxfire launched an online retail shop, something the Losselyongs have been wanting to do for some time. "It's expen- sive and time consuming, but we found shopify.com, which makes it accessible," says Quinn. They worked out the bugs in the slower summer months, and they're now making their online sales experience as interactive as possible. "We want people to be able to imagine coming into the store," says Quinn, "so we have recipes, a blog and newsletters." Each order is packed with a personal note and a sample of tea. "We can do it, so we do," says Katherine. "We try to create an experience that we ourselves would enjoy. I like it when I get a personal note." Speaking of personal, Quinn and Katherine see a lot of each other—more than many couples. "Some of our friends think we're nuts, but it's been eight years and I still wouldn't want to do anything else," says Quinn. He takes care of a lot of the wholesale responsibilities, Katherine covers accounting, and they collaborate on the Web site, customer interfacing and various projects. "We always said if the business ever threatened our marriage, we would dump it," adds Katherine. Next on the agenda is retail tastings, which they'll probably hold one day a week. They already do private tastings with wholesale customers, but bringing the experience to their store will take some adjustments. "If eight customers walked in randomly for a tasting, we'd both need to be here," says Quinn. "We want to do them right, so we'll need to schedule and plan them. We'd like it to resemble wine tastings; we're still brainstorming." Otherwise it's business as usual, as long as it fits with the Foxfire motto: "Tea Is Fun." "We'll keep up with our customer ser- vice, sourcing great teas and keep being who we are," says Quinn. "The relationships will follow." FRESH CUP MAGAZINE #%